River of Dreams: The Hudson Valley in Historic Postcards
River of Dreams: The Hudson Valley in Historic Postcards
George J. Lankevich
Copyright Date: 2006
Published by: Fordham University Press
Pages: 236
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x00hb
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River of Dreams: The Hudson Valley in Historic Postcards
Book Description:

From its crystal headwaters at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains to its majestic embrace by the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of New York Bay, the Hudson River is not only one of America's greatest waterways. The river and its valley are among America's greatest treasures-home to unrivaled natural beauty and a rich historic legacy that lives on in the great cities and small towns that line its shores. In this fascinating book, a leading historian takes us on a different kind of journey up the Hudson. George J. Lankevich has chosen 64 postcards-most from the first half of the 20th century-to chronicle the changing landscape of the Hudson Valley. North from the gritty riverfront factories of Yonkers, past the towering bluffs of the Palisades, we travel upstream, stopping to sample the remarkable variety of the river's changing course.Here's a rich portfolio of scenes that convey the extraordinary vitality of Hudson Valley history-from stately mansions at Hyde Park and Pocantico Hills to the small river ports that sent bricks and grain down to New York City. There's West Point, strong on its stone embankment, and, nearby, relaxed scenes of vacationers taking a cruise on one of the historic day boats.Lankevich's concise, colorful narrative of the four-hundred-year legacy of Henry Hudson's discovery flows as smoothly as these snapshot chronicles of a past that still resonates today. River of Dreams is an essential guide to the spirit of a great place-a must for visitors and locals alike.Praise for George J. LankevichGives readers a walking tour of Manhattan, from Battery Park to the top of the island via a terrific set of vintage and contemporary postcards . . . the result is an unusual perspective on a much-vaunted metropolis.-Publishers Weekly (on Postcards from Manhattan)Here, as in New York itself, may be found everything and everyone.-The New York Times Book Review (on New York: A Short History)Lankevich has done the near-impossible and packed almost four centuries of New York City into one slim history . . . a deft survey.-New York History (on New York: A Short History)

eISBN: 978-0-8232-4844-5
Subjects: History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface
    Preface (pp. vii-viii)
  4. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. ix-x)

    Folk wisdom tells us that we cannot step into the same river twice, and no American waterway proves the adage as well as the Hudson River. Only the seventy-first-longest river in the United States, the Hudson’s 315 miles transverse some of the loveliest land in the nation. Four centuries of history along its banks shaped American life and determined national development. Henry James, a somewhat unlikely product of its environment, described the stream with typical understatement as “perpetually interesting.” It remains a work in progress, a place of constant change, a river that has consistently helped to forge the American...

  5. Chapter 1 The Valley of History
    Chapter 1 The Valley of History (pp. 1-36)

    Born of mountain springs located high on the face of Mt. Marcy, at 5,344 feet the tallest peak in New York State, the Hudson River flows from a small lake called Tear of the Clouds that is strangely without fish. Half of the entire length of the river consists of a slow meander through the timbered Adirondack Mountains north of Albany, and at the capital it widens and plunges southward to the Atlantic Ocean. During its run to the sea, the river passes forests and farmland, villages and vast estates, towns and cities, the state capital and the enormous metropolis...

  6. Chapter 2 Life and Labor in the Hudson Valley
    Chapter 2 Life and Labor in the Hudson Valley (pp. 37-89)

    Rapid change marked the history of the Hudson Valley in the nineteenth century. As the conflicts of previous times receded into a storied past, its farms and towns became laboratories in which the new nation experimented itself into modernity. Major changes in agricultural production, the stirrings of big-business enterprise, and a transportation revolution that would transform both state and nation were only part of its tumult. The Hudson Valley also fostered alternative lifestyles and the first great school of American artists. Many members of the American leisure class chose to settle and frequent the region. The story of the century...

  7. [Map]
    [Map] (pp. 90-90)
  8. Chapter 3 The Modern Hudson Valley
    Chapter 3 The Modern Hudson Valley (pp. 91-122)

    By the dawn of the twentieth century, the Hudson Valley was not only a vital part of the New York economy but also had insinuated itself into the consciousness of the nation. Historians instructed citizens on the role the river played in securing independence; writers made the contours of the valley and the foibles of its people available to readers; artists and art lovers gloried in the pastoral nature of valley life, the quality of its light, and the grandeur of its mountains. Elite families inhabited the hilltops and inlets along the river, immigrants filled the cities, and tourists found...

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